Living people fire back at Republican fraud claims in error-ridden list of ‘dead voters’

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Conservative advocate Meshawn Maddock found herself at the center of controversy after highlighting a bogus voter fraud claim alleging that deceased voters had cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Like an overwhelming number of other Trump supporters, instead of verifying the validity of her claims, she aired her grievances on social media and left the public to do their own research. 

According to the local news outlet Bridge Michigan, Maddock released a list of more than 150 names of voters. It also publicized the addresses of the voters Maddock claimed were dead. According to Maddock, her list derived from a larger file that contained more than 2,000 names of people she claimed “voted in Wayne County by absentee ballot that are CONFIRMED deceased,”

It did not take long for social media users to fire back at Maddock. The outcome is no different than the frivolous post-election lawsuits being filed in courts across the country. Social media users quickly realized the problem with the list of names she released: many of the voters were, in fact, alive. Viewers also noted that some of the residential locations Maddock claimed were in Wayne County were actually in Oakland County. Continue reading.

More than 100 House Republicans sign brief backing Texas lawsuit challenging election results

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More than 100 House Republicans on Thursday signed an amicus brief in support of the Texas lawsuit aimed at overturning the election results in four swing states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that handed Democrat Joe Biden the White House.

“This brief presents [our] concern as Members of Congress, shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections,” states the brief signed by 106 GOP lawmakers.

Outgoing Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Johnson (La.) — one of President Trump’s closest allies in the House, having served on his impeachment defense team — helped lead the effort to garner support from his GOP colleagues for the brief. Johnson is joining the GOP leadership team in the new Congress. Continue reading.

Pennsylvania AG blasts Texas election suit as ‘seditious abuse’ of judicial process

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Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Thursday called Texas’s bid to invalidate the election results of Pennsylvania and three other battleground states a “seditious abuse of the judicial process.” 

The fiery Supreme Court brief from state Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D), which urged the justices to “send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated,” came as battle lines hardened in the unprecedented and long-shot legal dispute.

Texas on Monday filed a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to stop presidential electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin from finalizing President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory. Continue reading.

Federal judge reminds Sydney Powell how US elections work in yet another blow to ‘kraken’ conspiracy suits

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Things are not going well for President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Sydney Powell after a federal judge on Wednesday reminded her of how elections work in the United States.

In a 45-page ruling on Powell’s lawsuit in Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper reminded Powell that federal judges do not appoint the President of the United States, according to Law & Crime.

“Federal judges do not appoint the president in this country,” Pepper wrote. “One wonders why the plaintiffs came to federal court and asked a federal judge to do so. After a week of sometimes odd and often harried litigation, the court is no closer to answering the ‘why.’ But this federal court has no authority or jurisdiction to grant the relief the remaining plaintiff seeks.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court deals reality check to Trump’s post-election legal fight

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a reality check to President Trump’s far-fetched bid to overturn his election loss through the courts, just hours after he implored the justices to clear a path toward his second term despite having lost the race by more than 7 million votes.

To court watchers, it came as no surprise to see the justices deny an emergency bid by Trump-allied Pennsylvania Republicans to nullify President-elect Joe Biden’s certified victory in the Keystone State — a state Biden won by more than 81,000 ballots.

For Trump, however, the justices’ defiance of his plea prompted a now-familiar refrain amid his series of disappointing post-election court fights, with Trump downplaying the significance of the loss while reassuring supporters that his increasingly desperate legal campaign would ultimately secure his reelection.  Continue reading.

Trump pressures congressional Republicans to help in his fight to overturn the election

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President Trump is shifting his focus to Congress after the courts roundly rejected his bid to overturn the results of the election, pressuring congressional Republicans into taking a final stand to keep him in power.

Trump’s push is part of a multipronged approach as he also seeks to lobby state lawmakers and officials to give him cover for his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, as well as rally support for a last-gasp legal challenge in the Supreme Court that election law experts almost universally dismiss.

The president has been calling Republicans, imploring them to keep fighting and more loudly proclaim the election was stolen while pressing them on what they plan to do. He spoke to Arizona GOP Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, on Wednesday, and is meeting Thursday at the White House with several state attorneys general. Meanwhile, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and point man in the legal fight, has been making similar calls from the hospital, where he is being treated for covid-19. Continue reading.

The danger is growing that Trump’s lies about the election will lead to violence

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PRESIDENT TRUMP’S lying about the election has become dangerous — and not just in the sense that it damages democratic norms. It also increasingly threatens to spur physical violence against Americans who have done their duty to oversee a free and fair vote.

Officials in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin have reported receiving threats or harassment. The Arizona Republican Party asked its Twitter followers Tuesday if they were willing to give their lives to overturn the election and “die for something.”

Armed “protesters” menaced Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and her family in their home over the weekend. “Someone’s going to get killed,” said Gabriel Sterling, a senior Georgia election official, as he detailed last week the death threats he and others have received. Yet, Mr. Trump continues to pour gasoline on the fire, tweeting Wednesday that “We will soon be learning about the word ‘courage’, and saving our Country.” Kim Ward, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate, told the New York Times that if she refused to cooperate with efforts to challenge the election result, “I’d get my house bombed tonight.” Continue reading.

Harvard Law Professor Hits Donald Trump With The Cold Truth: ‘You Are A Loser’

“You’ve got to move on,” Laurence Tribe told the president.

Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe on Tuesday condemned President Donald Trump’s futile bid to overturn the 2020 election result.

“Mr. Trump, you have lost,” Tribe said on CNN’s “Outfront” after the Supreme Court dismissed a Republican attempt to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state.

“You’ve got to move on,” the commentator continued, noting that the United States needs to focus on things like the coronavirus pandemic and national security, not litigating the election. Continue reading.

Supreme Court rejects Texas lawsuit challenging swing-state election results

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The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to invalidate 10 million votes in four battleground states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — that President Trump lost.

Why it matters: It’s the latest and most significant legal defeat for Trump and his allies in their floundering attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump tweeted Wednesday, “We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!”

What they’re saying: “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot,” the Supreme Court wrote. Continue reading.